It’s Monday and that usually means that I post the best of the Texas Progressive Alliance in the traditional Monday Round-Up. Usually. But hey, I was busy so I have to do this the old fashioned way and write something brilliant today all by myself.
Except I can’t focus on any one thing today, so today it is going to be a "Political Potpourri".
Potpourri, for the few of you who don’t know, is a fancy word for mishmash. It’s French. So if you want to see what my brain looks like today, read on.
Today we learned that Dick Cheney has atrial fibrillation. It’s an irregularity in the heartbeat that needs to be corrected using “an electrical impulse to the heart”. I know, this is not really news because we have all heard of Cheney’s history of heart problems. But I mention this because it still comes as a shock to some that Cheney actually has one . . . a heart that is.
Then we learn that Trent Lott is turning in his senate membership – 5 years early. Having been re-elected in 2006, he was just hitting his stride as he was returned to minority leadership positions after a 2 year probation after he made arguably racist remarks at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash. Why so now, one would ask? Well, I wonder if it has anything to do with the reform bill that prevents ex-senators from joining a Washington lobby group for two years following their last year in congress? Said reform bill takes effect on January 1st 2008, so anyone who wants to quickly pull in lobby lucre had better get out now. That’s the reason, right? I mean, Larry Flynt did say he had something on a prominent Washington personality, didn’t he?
More close to home, the Dallas Morning News ran a story today about the tenuous alliance of Texas bloggers that, for some reason, tolerates my membership in it. That there is to be a blogger conclave in Austin next year, formerly called “Yearly Kos”, but now called Netroots Nation is no small feat, and as it turns out, no coincidence. It also doesn’t hurt that Kos himself has an interest in what looks to be the Senate race of 2008 in Noriega vs. Cornyn, and what better place to spotlight that race but in the red state’s own capitol?
And finally, what about Iraq? Well it seems that a pair of “terror suspects” were arrested on Monday. An announcement out of the Iraqi Defense Ministry revealed that soldiers at a checkpoint became suspicious of a bridal convoy because it appeared that everyone in the convoy was male – something that, thankfully, is as odd there as it would be in this country. Further suspicion was aroused when the groom refused to take the veil off of his bride. Everyone was ordered out of their cars and the bride was de-veiled, only to disclose that the bride was a guy, Haider al-Bahadli, sporting a five o’clock shadow. See photo at right. Now I have studied and studied his visage, and have come to a final conclusion that al-Bahadli may have arrived at this scheme to disguise himself by some central tendency that something like less than 1% of us have. I think he’s transgender. He just has to admit to his feelings.
Except I can’t focus on any one thing today, so today it is going to be a "Political Potpourri".
Potpourri, for the few of you who don’t know, is a fancy word for mishmash. It’s French. So if you want to see what my brain looks like today, read on.
Today we learned that Dick Cheney has atrial fibrillation. It’s an irregularity in the heartbeat that needs to be corrected using “an electrical impulse to the heart”. I know, this is not really news because we have all heard of Cheney’s history of heart problems. But I mention this because it still comes as a shock to some that Cheney actually has one . . . a heart that is.
Then we learn that Trent Lott is turning in his senate membership – 5 years early. Having been re-elected in 2006, he was just hitting his stride as he was returned to minority leadership positions after a 2 year probation after he made arguably racist remarks at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash. Why so now, one would ask? Well, I wonder if it has anything to do with the reform bill that prevents ex-senators from joining a Washington lobby group for two years following their last year in congress? Said reform bill takes effect on January 1st 2008, so anyone who wants to quickly pull in lobby lucre had better get out now. That’s the reason, right? I mean, Larry Flynt did say he had something on a prominent Washington personality, didn’t he?
More close to home, the Dallas Morning News ran a story today about the tenuous alliance of Texas bloggers that, for some reason, tolerates my membership in it. That there is to be a blogger conclave in Austin next year, formerly called “Yearly Kos”, but now called Netroots Nation is no small feat, and as it turns out, no coincidence. It also doesn’t hurt that Kos himself has an interest in what looks to be the Senate race of 2008 in Noriega vs. Cornyn, and what better place to spotlight that race but in the red state’s own capitol?
And finally, what about Iraq? Well it seems that a pair of “terror suspects” were arrested on Monday. An announcement out of the Iraqi Defense Ministry revealed that soldiers at a checkpoint became suspicious of a bridal convoy because it appeared that everyone in the convoy was male – something that, thankfully, is as odd there as it would be in this country. Further suspicion was aroused when the groom refused to take the veil off of his bride. Everyone was ordered out of their cars and the bride was de-veiled, only to disclose that the bride was a guy, Haider al-Bahadli, sporting a five o’clock shadow. See photo at right. Now I have studied and studied his visage, and have come to a final conclusion that al-Bahadli may have arrived at this scheme to disguise himself by some central tendency that something like less than 1% of us have. I think he’s transgender. He just has to admit to his feelings.
